Prokaryotic syllables and excrescent vowels in two Yuman languages

Abstract

Excrescent vowels in two Yuman languages (Cocopa and Jamul Tiipay) and the phonotactic restrictions for their occurrence show that vowels that fulfil some criteria of excrescent vowels are not always a phonetic reflex without repercussions for syllabification (Hall 2006), but rather signal the presence of an additional, albeit non-canonical, syllable. They are inserted in syllables without a nucleus/mora, which renders them inaccessible for higher level prosodic computation. Degenerate, minor or semisyllables, i.e., syllables without a nucleus, have elsewhere been postulated for stray consonants that add a beat/mora accessible to foot construction. The two Yuman languages discussed here add to the typology of minor syllables by contributing minor syllables with an onset and an optional coda, but without a nucleus or a mora. They also provide evidence for a second type of intrusive vowel.